updated 05:10 pm EST, Thu March 3, 2011

Xoom with Wi-Fi only may cost just 539

A new sighting at Sam's Club may have put the price of a Wi-Fi only Motorola Xoom much lower than its 3G counterpart. A meeting and an early floor stand show the tablet costing $539, or a dramatic $261 lower than what Verizon charges for its contract-free version. Droid-Life's sources showed that the Walmart-owned chain would give users special bundles with a silicone "Protective Gel Case."

The release date for the Wi-Fi Xoom hasn't been given out, but an international debut in early April could put the American version on a similar track. It's also unclear if the Sam's Club pack would still have 32GB of storage or if it would be dropped to 16GB or less to keep the price down.

Motorola chief Sanjay Jha recently gave a ballpark figure of $600 for a Wi-Fi Xoom and suggests the Sam's Club price might be low. If a full 32GB tablet, though, the simpler version would immediately reverse a price gap between Motorola and Apple that has left the iPad 2 in a far more favorable position both for equivalent devices and with much more affordable models at the low end.

None of the involved companies have acknowledged the prices, but Motorola could use a presence at the CTIA show in Orlando late this month to unveil its plans.

Can you say "race to the bottom"

If true, the bad news is coming quickly. That is the rapid commoditization of android devices and the total destruction of margins for the hardware manufacturers, just as happened in the PC market. Except it is happening much much faster! What these clueless hardware manufacturers in the handset market fail to realize is that they will rapidly become the commodity PC all over again by all flocking to android. They are the victims of their own inability to innovate and provide usable software, interfaces and OS's on their own that actually provide users with a superior/great experience and expanded capabilities. They also have the double whammy of the carriers dictating terms, specifications and total control over updates etc. Good luck fools!